Electrically actuatable temporal tristimulus-color device

Abstract

The electrically actuated light filter operates in a cyclical temporal mode to effect a tristimulus-color light analyzer. Construction is based on a Fabry-Perot interferometer comprised of a high-speed movable mirror pair and cyclically powered electrical actuators. When combined with a single vidicon tube or a monochrome solid state image sensor, a temporally operated tristimulus-color video camera is effected. A color-generated is accomplished when constructed with a companion light source and is a flicker-free colored-light source for transmission type display systems. Advantages of low cost and small physical size result from photolithographic batch-processing manufacturability.

I claim: 
     
       1. An electrically actuatable Fabry-Perot interferometer color filter comprising: a mirror-coated transparent substrate;   a mirror-coated diaphragm;   a mechanical multi-gap-position diaphragm-constraining means; and,   an electrostatic actuator consisting of electrode sets, oppositely positioned on diaphragm and substrate, and a voltage source acting with sufficient magnitude to effect mechanical collapse of the diaphragm into proximate contact with said constraining means.   
     
     
       2. The color filter of claim 1 wherein the mechanical multi-gap-position diaphragm-constraining means consists of mechanical stops. 
     
     
       3. The color filter of claim 1 wherein the mechanical multi-gap-position diaphragm-constraining means and the mirror-coated diaphragm consist of a single-element stepped-construction diaphragm formed integrally with the transparent substrate. 
     
     
       4. A temporal tristimulus-color light analyzer comprising: an electrically actuatable Fabry-Perot interferometer color filter further comprising: a mirror-coated transparent substrate;   a mirror-coated diaphragm;   a mechanical multi-gap-position diaphragm-constraining means; and   an electrostatic actuator consisting of electrode sets, oppositely positioned on diaphragm and substrate, and a voltage source acting with sufficient magnitude to effect mechanical collapse of the diaphragm into proximate contact with said constraining means; and,     a high-speed cyclically-operated electrical control source to actuate the Fabry-Perot interferometer means at the tristimulus-color transmission modes.   
     
     
       5. A temporal color-analyzer camera system comprising: a temporal tristimulus-color light analyzer comprised of: an electrically actuatable Fabry-Perot interferometer color filter further comprising: a mirror-coated transparent substrate;   a mirror-coated diaphragm;   a mechanical multi-gap-position diaphragm-constraining means; and   an electrostatic actuator consisting of electrode sets, oppositely positioned on diaphragm and substrate, and a voltage source acting with sufficient magnitude to effect mechanical collapse of the diaphragm into proximate contact with said constraining means; and     a high-speed cyclically-operated electrical control source to actuate the Fabry-Perot interferometer means at the tristimulus-color transmission modes; and,     a camera means.   
     
     
       6. The temporal color-analyzer camera system according to claim 5 wherein the camera means is a conventional color-film camera system. 
     
     
       7. The temporal color-analyzer camera system according to claim 5 wherein the camera means is a time-sequenced color-signal video camera system. 
     
     
       8. A temporal tristimulus-color transmissive display system comprising: a temporal tristimulus-color light analyzer comprised of: an electrically actuatable Fabry-Perot interferometer color filter further comprising: a mirror-coated transparent substrate;   a mirror-coated diaphragm;   a mechanical multi-gap-position diaphragm-constraining means; and   an electrostatic actuator consisting of electrode sets, oppositely positioned on diaphragm and substrate, and a voltage source acting with sufficient magnitude to effect mechanical collapse of the diaphragm into proximate contact with said constraining means; and     a high-speed cyclically-operated electrical control source to actuate the Fabry-Perot interferometer means at the tristimulus-color transmission modes; and     a collimated spectrally-wideband light source; and, a time-coordinated light-transmissive display means.   
     
     
       9. The temporal tristimulus-color display according to claim 8 wherein the light-transmissive display means is a liquid crystal display. 
     
     
       10. The temporal tristimulus-color display according to claim 8 wherein the light-transmissive display means is an electrostatically actuatable light modulating device. 
     
     
       11. The temporal tristimulus-color display according to claim 8 wherein the light-transmissive display means is photographic film.